NBN rolling out to more Hunter suburbs

Newcastle residents will start to see trenches in their neighbourhoods as more suburbs gear up for the rollout of high speed broadband.

An additional 10,600 homes and businesses across Newcastle are now included in the first rollout of the national broadband network.

It means nearly 80,000 Newcastle premises will be connected to the NBN by 2016.

Federal Labor candidate for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon, says Newcastle is now being prioritised in the project's initial rollout.

"For the federal seat of Newcastle, that means our suburbs of Stockton, Fullerton Cove, Fern Bay, Tomago, Williamtown, Heatherbrae and Kooragang will now all be covered in that initial first rollout of the high speed broadband," she said.

"It's great news for all of those places."

It means some Stockton residents will soon be able access broadband for the first time.

Ms Claydon says some Stockton locals do not currently have access to an ADSL line and the upgrade will be life changing.

"For people that have that frustration of not being able to even have easy access to something as simple as email, this will be such a radical change in their lives."